SCHOOL POLL FINDS ALCOHOL USE CLIMBING

More than half of Florida's middle and high school students have used
alcohol illegally, an increase of 21 percent over the past five years,
according to a recent survey of 65,000 students. And more students than
that are drinking in St. Johns and Clay counties, survey results show.

"That's scary," said Atrica Warr, a senior management analyst at the
Florida Department of Children and Families' substance abuse office.

"That's one out of two kids. That's a lot of kids who are drinking."

In Northeast Florida, 4,479 students in Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau
counties were surveyed. The increase in alcohol use was lower than the
state average in Duval and Nassau.

The upsurge in alcohol use comes at a time when tobacco use is on the
decline, a situation health and education officials attribute to strong
anti-tobacco messages nationwide.

The findings are part of the Florida Youth Substance Abuse survey,
sponsored by the Department of Children and Families. Students in 580
schools statewide participated in the anonymous survey, administered
between November 1999 and January 2000. The county results were released a
few weeks ago on the Internet and will be used to help state officials
target education and health programs to problem areas. Sixty-five of 67
school districts participated.

About 15 of every 100 kids surveyed said they had "binged" on alcohol, or
had more than five drinks in one sitting in the past two weeks.

Binge rates were lower in Duval and Nassau, about the same ratio in Clay
and higher in St. Johns.

That kind of information is important to determine what counties need the
most help and money, said Skip Forsyth, director of the Florida Youth
Initiative, a drug abuse prevention program at the Department of Children
and Families. The last similar survey was in 1995. "This cuts down on the
guesswork," he said.

A recent $400,000 federal grant, which will target alcohol prevention
statewide, should help reduce teen use, said Richard Wolf, a strategic
planner for the Governor's Office of Drug Control.

"We've seen a strong tobacco message, but we haven't seen a concerted
effort to reduce teen alcohol so the use is way up," Wolf said.

Northeast Florida kids say alcohol and cigarettes are within easy reach.

"Alcohol and cigarettes are entirely too easy to get," said Michael
Bennett,17, senior class president at Orange Park High School, who said
he's chosen to stay clean.

Easy access could explain why by age 11, one in four kids has tried
alcohol, according to the survey.

"Don't think your 11-year-old is an innocent lamb," Warr said. "Don't think
that because your child is young, you don't have to worry about substance
abuse issues. And every year your kid gets older, the chances of using
substances gets higher."

The three most popular substances, according to the survey, are alcohol,
cigarettes and marijuana, and many kids opt for those drugs because they
think they are less harmful.

"I thought I was fine because I stuck to alcohol and weed," said
17-year-old Ryan Nelson, a Sandalwood junior. "But I didn't realize I was
ruining my life with those drugs anyway."

Nelson said he has been clean for a couple of months and credits the
school's Defiance club, a national anti-drug group, with keeping him on
track. He said he initially got into drugs to fit in, one of the risk
factors highlighted in this year's survey.

Special questions were built into the survey to try to ensure only honest
responses would be counted, officials said.

The survey points to peer pressure, low neighborhood attachment and poor
family supervision as factors that increase the likelihood a student will
abuse substances.

Protective factors include social opportunities, family attachment and
spirituality.

Alcohol use is not the only substance that has gotten more popular since
the last statewide survey in 1995. Officials also noted an upsurge in club
drugs, such as Ecstacy.

But overall cocaine use declined by 66 percent, marijuana by 38 percent,
inhalant use by 21 percent and tobacco use by 25 percent.